Technical Sciences Section

Call for Papers
38th National Student Research Conference
Technical Sciences Section

1. General Information, Organizers

Organizer of the event:

University of Pécs
Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology
Address:    7624 Pécs, Boszorkány út 2.
Phone:        +36 72 503 650
Website:     https://mik.pte.hu

Section website address: https://otdk.mik.pte.hu
Section e-mail address: otdk.muszaki@mik.pte.hu
Section phone number: 06 30 110 8598
Date of the event: 31. 03. – 02. 04. 2027

The National Association for Student Research, the Technical Sciences Section Committee and the organizing Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology at the University of Pécs hereby announce the Technical Sciences Section of the 38th National Student Research Conference under the terms set out in this call. The conditions for participation and registration in the Technical Sciences Section of the 38th OTDK are set out in the General Call of the 38th OTDK and in this Call of the OTDT Technical Sciences Committee.

The planned deadlines are:

2. Eligibility Criteria

2.1 Who is eligible to participate

In the 38th National Student Research Conference (OTDK), TDK papers and authors (in the case of multi-author TDK papers, all authors) may participate that meet the conditions specified in the General Call for the 38th National Student Research Conference (details are provided in Supplement 2 of the General Call for the 38th OTDK.)

The Section further stipulates the following: PhD students who already hold a master’s degree at the time of the institutional TDK may not submit their papers to the 38th OTDK.

A TDK paper can be entered for the OTDK only once and in one section. If an author submits more than one TDK paper, they must declare during the submission process that there is no substantial or significant overlap between the papers, and any overlap between the submitted papers will also be examined by the Section Committees and the Section organizers during the verification of submissions. The Section Committee may determine that the extent of overlap is not acceptable; in such cases, the author must choose which paper to present, and the remaining applications will be deleted.

If the student fails to make the declaration during the application process, all submitted papers will be disqualified.

The extent of overlap will be examined by the Executive Board and the Chair of the Section Committee, who may disqualify papers with excessive overlap.

A submitted TDK paper may have up to two authors. Exceptions may include TDK papers that obtained eligibility prior to the publication of the Section Call.

2.2. Formal requirements for participation and evaluation of TDK papers and presentations

Supplement 1 of the Section Call contains the formatting rules to be followed and the elements of the evaluation, with the following details:

• Content and format requirements for TDK papers and abstracts.
• Rules for the presentation of TDK papers in foreign languages.
• Evaluation criteria and rules for the TDK paper and the presentation.

3. Sessions/topics

1. Additive technologies
2. Applied computer science and numerical methods
3. Materials science, materials testing
4. Fluid dynamics
5. Health science
6. Electronics, electrical measurement technology, telecommunications
7. Electronic and computing devices, embedded systems
8. Electrical engineering, electric power engineering
9. Construction, building structures and engineering structures
10. Architecture and architectural history
11. Building services engineering, building energy engineering
12. Geotechnics, geodesy, engineering geology
13. Mechanical energetics, thermodynamics
14. Engineering design, computer-aided design
15. Production technology
16. Industrial product and design engineering
17. Vehicle engineering sciences
18. Environmental engineering sciences
19. Transport Science
20. Mechatronics, biomechatronics, robotics
21. Application of artificial intelligence
22. Technical logistics
23. Engineering mechanics
24. Technical management
25. Polymer technology
26. Systems and control engineering
27. Urban studies and settlement studies
28. Water science

During registration, students must indicate which session they consider most suitable for presenting their TDK paper, as well as any additional sessions where their TDK paper might also be appropriately presented.

The fundamental rules for the establishment of the final session assignment are included in the General Call of the 38th OTDK. The Technical Sciences Section Committee may, based on the number of TDK papers received and their topic, merge some of the planned sessions/topics or create additional ones (so that the TDK paper may be assigned to a different session than the one indicated by the author(s) during registration).

The organizing institution, with the agreement of the Chair of the Technical Sciences Section Committee, reserves the right to redirect submissions with content that does not align with the Technical Sciences Section’s field of study to another session of the 38th National Student Research Conference that is more appropriate for the topic, with thanks for the application.The decision on the preliminary sessions and the classification of the TDK papers will be made by the Technical Sciences Section Committee.

The Technical Sciences Section Committee decides on the preliminary panels and the classification of TDK papers; students will be notified via the online system of the National Association for Student Research no later than February 8, 2027. Authors may file an objection against the primary session assignment of their TDK paper by February 10, 2027, by sending a request with a proposed reassignment to the central email address of the Technical Sciences Section. The organizers, taking into account the limited organisational possibilities, will proceed with the request as specified and inform the author of the decision. The Technical Sciences Committee will make the final decision on the sessions and the assignment of the TDK papers by February 12, 2027, at the latest.

4. Application procedure

Following the student research conference, the TDK paper can be uploaded, and the section can be selected within 30 days from the receipt of the email specified in Supplement 2 to the 38th OTDK General Call. Participants who will be eligible to submit a TDK paper at a student research conference held within 30 days before the application deadline for the Technical Sciences Section of the 38th OTDK must upload their TDK paper to the OTDT online system by the application deadline.

ATTENTION! Please note that uploading a TDK paper does not constitute an automatic entry to the 38th OTDK.

Applications must be submitted during the application period in accordance with the steps set out in Section 4 of Supplement 2 to the General Call.

Registration period: November 16, 2026 – December 9, 2026 (Wednesday) 16:00

Registration deadline: December 9, 2026 (Wednesday) 16:00

Applicants are requested to submit their applications to the 38th OTDK responsibly and to finalize their application in the online system of the National Association for Student Research only if they genuinely intend to participate. If you have finalized your application but are subsequently unable to attend the conference, please notify the organizers of the relevant Section as soon as possible via the online system of the National Association for Student Research.

The responsibilities of the institutional TDT Chair in relation to the 38th OTDK are set out in Section 5 of Supplement 2 to the General Call.

Deadline for the institutional and faculty TDT Chair to upload documents to the OTDT online system: December 14, 2026 (Monday) 16:00 After the deadline it will no longer be possible to upload application documents in the OTDT online system. We are unable to accept TDK papers that do not meet the requirements outlined in the Technical Sciences Section Call; such applications will be rejected. Applications submitted individually are invalid.

We invite and welcome all students dedicated to the field of science who, through their outstanding scientific work, contribute to the reputation and recognition of technical sciences. We welcome distinguished representatives and researchers of the field to support the scientific development of the younger generation with their high-quality professional insights.

Budapest, April 21, 2026

SUPPLEMENT 1 TO THE CALL FOR PAPERS
38TH OTDK
TECHNICAL SCIENCES SECTION

1. The language of the TDK paper and the presentation, and the rules for the presentation of the TDK paper

For Hungarian native speaker students the language of the OTDK and of the TDK papers is Hungarian. The oral presentation must be held in Hungarian. Students enrolled in non-Hungarian-language programs may also submit and present their papers in English. However, the abstract must in all cases be submitted in Hungarian.

The OTDK will be held in person.

2. Content requirements for the TDK paper

All TDK papers submitted to the OTDK undergo plagiarism screening, the evaluation of which is the responsibility of the Chair of the Technical Sciences Section Committee and the Executive Chair. We specifically draw the attention of submitting students to the fact that plagiarism is not permitted in any form; even one’s own work may not be cited without proper referencing (prohibition of self-plagiarism). TDK papers that are proven to infringe copyright will be excluded from the OTDK by the OTDT, with simultaneous notification to the nominating institution.

Further content requirements:

The submitted TDK paper must be the independent work of the students. The TDK paper should present the key literature in the topic area and justify the topic’s importance and interest. It must include the research aim and methodology. The TDK paper should detail the results obtained by the students and explain how these were evaluated. Students should compare their results and findings with those found in the literature, and in a separate section, they must clearly distinguish their own work or analysis, particularly how it diverges from group research results if conducted in a team setting.

The use of artificial intelligence-based software is not prohibited; however, the specific sections where and the purposes for which it was used must be indicated in footnotes to the relevant parts, and a declaration of its use must be made upon submission in accordance with Supplement 2 (Section 2.1) of the General Call of the 38th OTDK.

3. Formal requirements for the TDK paper

TDK papers that do not meet the minimum page limit set by the Technical Sciences Section or exceed the maximum number of pages cannot be uploaded to the OTDT online system.

TDK papers must be uploaded in PDF format. The maximum file size is 10 MB.

Generally recommended form:

font: Times New Roman
font size: 12 pt
line spacing: 1.5
margin: 2.5 cm.

Minimum number of pages for the TDK paper: 20, maximum number of pages: 60.

The Section Committee draws the attention of prospective applicants to the fact that, under the call for the 39th OTDK, only papers not exceeding 50 pages in length may be submitted.

Uploading supplementary documents is permitted. The supplementary document must be a single file with a maximum size of 10 MB.  Referencing method: as appropriate to the field.

4. Rules for the abstract

Only the main text needs to be uploaded to the OTDT online system; the other data – names of authors, institution, supervisor, etc. – are generated by the online system. The language of the abstract is Hungarian. The length of the abstract is minimum 500 and maximum 2,500 characters.

5. Evaluation rules for the TDK paper:

The institution hosting the Technical Sciences Section will provide a computer and projector for presentations, while any additional, specific requirements must be discussed in advance by the submitting institution with the Technical Sciences Section organisers.

TDK papers within the same section will be evaluated by all three members of the Session Panel.

Evaluation criteria for the written component:

• the structure and style of the TDK paper
• the review of literature related to the topic
• the quality of topic development
• the evaluation, modernity, and significance of the results

In the written evaluation, each panel member ranks the papers from 1 to n, where n is the number of TDK papers in the section. The best TDK paper should be ranked first. The electronic system then calculates the average ranking from the three reviewers.

The written evaluations (without ranking information) will be made publicly available in the OTDT online system by the organizers of the Technical Sciences Section five working days before the conference.

Each TDK paper must be presented at the conference in a 10-minute open presentation, followed by a 5–10-minute discussion, the first part of which is devoted to the applicant’s responses to the written review questions, and the second part to responding to the Session Panel’s spontaneous questions.

Evaluation criteria for the oral presentation:

• presentation of results and the presenter’s subject knowledge
• presentation style, time management
• use and application of visual aids
• debating skills

During the oral evaluation, the Session Panel establishes a ranking based on the quality of the presentation and a separate ranking based on debating skills. The final ranking is determined as the average of the three rankings. In the event of a tie for first place, the Session Panel must resolve it.

• 38th OTDK Technical Sciences Section Call
• Supplement 1